MORINA, Albania (CNN) -- Groups of military-age, ethnic Albanian men began appearing among Kosovar refugee columns Friday after weeks of fears that they were being killed inside Kosovo.

The exodus from Kosovo has been composed mostly of women,
children and old men since Yugoslav troops accelerated what
NATO calls a campaign of "ethnic cleansing" in the Serbian
province. The absent males raised fears that men ranging in
age from their teens to their 60s were being killed.

But CNN's Ben Wedeman said several men came over the Yugoslav
frontier Friday. The men said they were rounded up by Serb
authorities, taken somewhere to work, then kicked out near the border crossing.

They join more than 600,000 other Kosovars who have fled the
province in the past month. The bulk of the refugees have
sought sanctuary in Albania and Macedonia. Some of those arriving in Albania have walked more than 100 miles (160 km) to get out of Kosovo, crossing the border on bloody feet.

Conditions remain difficult in the muddy refugee camps in
those countries, but refugees are at least receiving basic
care, said Clare Short, Britain's overseas development
secretary.

Meanwhile, relief agencies and NATO officials began plans to return hundreds of thousands of refugees to Kosovo at the conflict's end.

"The humanitarian aid delivered was sufficient to feed
400,000 people for 16 days; provide temporary shelter,
bedding and basic facilities for 100,000 refugees; and to
meet the basic medical needs of up to 300,000," Garnett said.

Short, meanwhile, said NATO is trying to prepare the Kosovars
to return home when the conflict with Yugoslavia ends.

Kosovo's ethnic Albanian population made up 90 percent of the
province before the Yugoslav crackdown. Short said efforts would focus on how to rebuild Kosovar society after the war.

"It's very important that we get the right civil structure
within Kosovo. Interim arrangements will be necessary, and we
should learn from Bosnia the importance of democratic
structure at the right time," she said.

But the refugees have put severe strains on both Albania and
Macedonia. Albanian police cracked down on a makeshift camp
near Kukes, sending thousands toward Albania's capital Tirana
and other cities.

In Macedonia, where 130,000 refugees have already sought
shelter, new arrivals are exhausted and increasingly
unwelcome.

But they come across the border anyway -- pushed across, they
say, by Serb border guards threatening to kill them.

At Stankovic, the biggest of Macedonia's burgeoning refugee
camps, aid workers were frantically trying to free up space.
Refugees are being packed off to distant camps in Turkey to
make room for new arrivals.

The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees has appealed to
member states for another $625 million in relief operations,
UNHCR officials said Friday. That amount should allow the
agency to cover the needs of 950,000 refugees from April to
June.

U.N. spokeswoman Therese Gastaut said relief agencies have so
far received $180 million in donations to cover the Kosovo
relief operation.